August 15, 2005

Indecency Complaints Recede into Near Oblivion

Let the desensitization begin, friends. A new report released by the FCC shows that indecency complaints are steeply declining. Cheers to that!

The numbers are quite astonishing: the last part of 2004 saw 317,833 radio and TV broadcasting complaints, which decreased by about half during the first quarter of this year. Check out the trend for Q1, 2005:

January - 138,652February - 14,480March - 3,884

It seems as though America is shying away from the idea of federal censorship (or at least, the organization responsible for over 95% of complaints to the FCC is calming down a tad), which provides an interesting backdrop as the commission decides how to handle the backlog of complaints they've been ignoring since the beginning of this year. The recent hiring of a vehement anti-porno activist as an FCC policy advisor reeks of another indecency crackdown, but the feds may find more regulatory action difficult to defend considering the public's waning interest.